MAKRO BAD CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

If I ever had to rate the top 10 worst customer experiences, Makro Cornubia would take the first 5 spots hands down! I've had an experience from hell with Makro South Africa, after I bought a laptop for school which after a very short while became extremely slow, took forever to get to the home screen and constantly froze. Everything I did was online, I did not download any malicious software, I did not open any files besides my school assignments and notes. But that's not only where the problem started - I understand that things like this do happen and I thought I would take it back and hopefully arrive at an amicable solution.

Here is a list of everyone I interacted with from day 1 on 5/02/2022:

1. Sindiswa Hlanti who works at returns. Extremely rude, did not listen to word I said and showed zero sympathy for my situation. I've had multiple interactions with her and they've all been terrible.

2. Sandile Langa who is apparently a manager in one of the departments within the store. At the end of our first telephonic conversation with him, he told me what he says goes whether I like it or not and hung up on me while I was still talking. I had another encounter with him in person and he said that I can escalate the issue as far as I want if I disagree with the solution that I was openly unhappy about.

3. Farzana Sonvadi who works at head office and is apparently in charge of the Makro brand, I'm not sure about her exact title. Initially Farzana seemed to be very helpful, she gave me her personal number and said I could contact her at anytime. But after a lengthy process and the laptop being taken in for assessment it came back still faulty. When I tried to call her after getting it back, she missed my call and never got back to me until today.

4. Shaun Thomas who is in charge of the Makro Cornubia store. This gentleman avoided me throughout the whole process, I have never gotten the chance to speak to him on the phone or even in person. The only interaction was through email threads that we were both on but never direct to me from him.

It's either Makro does not prioritise good customer experiences or these people just give the Makro brand a bad name. Only two individuals did not make me feel small, undervalued and insignificant - Nzuzo and Thobile who both work at returns. I subsequently decided to revert the matter directly to the computer manufacturer to see if they could help and they were able to issue a credit note under the Consumer Protection Act and I got my refund(21/05/2022) after month's worth of fighting. Unfortunately I will never get a refund for the time I lost in the midst of this whole crazy situation.